Maui - Hawaii - page 720

Hiking the Halemauʻu Trail down to the Holua campground and back - 7.4 miles
roundtrip - can make a memorable day hike. Just be sure to start early before the after-
noon clouds roll in and visibility vanishes. The first mile of this trail is fairly level and
offers a fine view of the crater with Koʻolau Gap to the east. It then descends 1400ft
along 2 miles of switchbacks to the crater floor and on to the Holua campground.
At 6940ft, Holua is one of the lowest areas along this trail, and you'll see impressive
views of the crater walls rising a few thousand feet to the west. Large lava tubes here are
worth exploring: one's up a short, steep cliff behind the Holua cabin, and another's a
15-minute detour further along the trail. According to legend, the latter tube was a spir-
itual place where mothers brought the piko (umbilical cords) of their newborns to gather
mana for the child.
If you have the energy, push on another mile to reach colorful cinder cones, and make
a short detour onto the Silversword Loop , where you'll see these unique plants in vari-
ous stages of growth. In summer, you might even see silverswords in flower, their tall
stalks ablaze with hundreds of maroon and yellow blossoms. But be careful - half of all
silverswords today are trampled to death as seedlings, mostly by hikers who wander off
trails and unknowingly step on their shallow roots. The trail continues another 6.3 miles
to the Paliku cabin.
The trailhead to Halemauʻu is 3.5 miles above the Park Headquarters Visitor Center
and about 6 miles below the Haleakalā Visitor Center. There's a fair chance you'll see
nene in the parking lot. If you're camping at Hosmer Grove, you can take the little-
known, unexciting Supply Trail instead, joining the Halemauʻu Trail at the crater rim
after 2.5 miles.
Cinder Desert HIKING
A spur trail connects Sliding Sands Trail, just west of Kapalaoa cabin, with the Hale-
mauʻu Trail, about midway between the Paliku and Holua campgrounds. This spur trail
takes in many of the crater's most kaleidoscopic cinder cones, and the viewing angle
changes with every step.
The trail ends up on the north side of the cinder desert near Kawilinau, also known as
the Bottomless Pit . Legends say the pit leads down to the sea, though the National Park
Service says it's just 65ft deep. Truth be told, there's not much to see, as you can't really
get a good look down the narrow shaft. The real prize is the nearby short loop trail,
where you can sit for awhile in the saddle of Pele's Paint Pot Lookout , the crater's most
brilliant vantage point.
Kaupo Trail HIKING